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Ghosts of Fleet Street

Discover how, along a muddy, rambling thoroughfare abutted by a stinking river, printing blossomed from a medieval mystery into a mind-moulding instrument of mass communication, and hear the stories of cast of characters instrumental in making Fleet Street “the nerve-centre of the world” and “The Palladium of Liberty” including Wynkyn de Worde, Dr Johnson and Rupert Murdoch. 

  • Read the Guardian‘s glowing review of the tour here.

In 1495, an eccentric octopus-loving Walloon called Wynkyn de Worde set up a cranky printing press at the sign of the creaking sun in St Bride’s Churchyard. 250 years later, Fleet Street had blossomed into the nerve-centre of the world’s biggest and most influential mass media, churning out hundreds of newspapers each week. By the 20th century, every major UK newspaper had its headquarters on Fleet Street. And its ancient taverns were packed with impoverished hack writers and inkies.

Fleet Street came to be associated with knowledge, enlightenment, and democracy. It has been hailed as the “Palladium of English Liberty”.

But today, Fleet Street is a ghost of its former self. Not a single newspaper operates from the vicinity any longer. The thumping, hammering and squelching of printing presses has been replaced by the sound of urban ennui. But you can relive it all, just for a day.

Beginning at Stationers’ Hall, the medieval centre of printing, and finishing with a pint in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, this musical, dramatised tour will take you through 600 years of bribery, gossip, and booze on the Street of Ink. You’ll meet the ghosts of Fleet Street denizens including Samuel Johnson, Hodge the Cat, Daniel Defoe, Kitty Fisher, the Rhinoceros of Ludgate Hill and perhaps even Rebekah Brooke being tried at the Old Bailey. Sweeney Todd will not be appearing in this tour.

From Unreal City Audio as recommended by the GuardianTelegraphBBC, and Culture Critic. The tour lasts around 2hrs. The perfect way to kick-start your Thursday night.

  • Read Dr Green’s Telegraph article on the dark history of Fleet Street here.

STARTING POINT

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Dr Matthew Green is the author of the acclaimed book London: A Travel Guide Through Time, which has been described by William Hague as ‘an excellent and vivid work of history’ and Liza Picard as ‘a must for anyone interested in London’s history’. Matthew also writes historical features for the Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times among others, and has featured in many TV and Radio documentaries, and lectures on the history of London. He’s the founder of Unreal City Audio, which produces immersive, critically acclaimed tours of historic London.

Your Guide

Dr Matthew Green

In 2009, Dr Matthew Green completed a PhD in the history of the mass media at Oxford University. Unmoved by the prospect of a cloistered academic life he turned to popular history and now writes for the Guardian and Telegraph, appears on BBC TV and radio, teaches a wide range of historical subjects, and gives sell-out talks at the Idler Academy, 5x15, Port Eliot and elsewhere. He is currently writing a book on 17th and 18th-century coffeehouses.